h rose to his forehead. "Oh, I know--I know that--" he
declared hastily; and added, with a factitious animation: "But thank you
for telling me."

"There's nothing, is there," she continued, "to make our meeting in this
way in the least embarrassing or painful to either of us, when both
have found...." She broke off, and held her hand out to him. "I've heard
about you and Coral," she ended.

He just touched her hand with cold fingers, and let it drop. "Thank
you," he said for the third time.

"You won't sit down?"

He sat down.

"Don't you think," she continued, "that the new way of... of meeting
as friends... and talking things over without ill-will... is much
pleasanter and more sensible, after all?"

He smiled. "It's immensely kind of you to feel that."

"Oh, I do feel it!" She stopped short, and wondered what on earth she
had meant to say next, and why she had so abruptly lost the thread of
her discourse.

In the pause she heard him cough slightly and clear his throat. "Let me
say, then," he began, "that I'm glad too--immensely glad that your own
future is so satisfactorily settled."

She lifted her glance again to his walled face, in which not a muscle
stirred.

"Yes: it--it makes everything easier for you, doesn't it?"

"For you too, I hope." He paused, and then went on: "I want also to tell
you that I perfectly understand--"

"Oh," she interrupted, "so do I; your point of view, I mean."

They were again silent.

"Nick, why can't we be friends real friends? Won't it be easier?" she
broke out at last with twitching lips.

"Easier--?"

"I mean, about talking things over--arrangements. There are arrangements
to be made, I suppose?"

"I suppose so." He hesitated. "I'm doing what I'm told-simply following
out instructions. The business is easy enough, apparently. I'm taking
the necessary steps--"

She reddened a little, and drew a gasping breath. "The necessary steps:
what are they? Everything the lawyers tell one is so confusing.... I
don't yet understand--how it's done."

"My share, you mean? Oh, it's very simple." He paused, and added in a
tone of laboured ease: "I'm going down to Fontainebleau to-morrow--"

She stared, not understanding. "To Fontainebleau--?"

Her bewilderment drew from him his first frank smile. "Well--I chose
Fontainebleau--I don't know why... except that we've never been there
together."

At that she suddenly understood, and the blood rushed to her forehead.
She sto